Electrical cables used in industrial, commercial, and residential applications generally consist of a plurality of wires twisted together to form a single cable. Examples of such cables include non-metallic sheath (NM) such as Romex® (a registered trademark of the Southwire Company, a Delaware corporation doing business at One Southwire Drive, Carrolton, Ga., 30119), armored cable, and other types of twisted and/or braided cable. Cable is traditionally run in a building or other job site to a junction box, breaker panel, electrical apparatus, or other suitable electrical connection. It is often necessary to untwist the individual wires that make up the cable in order to make the appropriate electrical connections.
Frequently more than one wire is required to be connected to a single electrical contact point. One way to accomplish connecting two or more wires to a single connection is to twist the wires together. For example, multiple ground wires are typically twisted together to connect to a single ground at a junction box. Traditionally, twisting is accomplished manually, such as by gripping the wires with lineman's pliers and rotating the pliers until the wires are sufficiently twisted. However, manual wire twisting with pliers is time consuming, labor intensive, and can contribute to carpal tunnel syndrome. Additionally, it is difficult to generate sufficient torque to simultaneously twist more than two wires together, especially where the wires are of a large gauge. Alternative methods of twisting wires using mechanical devices typically involve rotating devices which use clips, clamps, or other securing methods to hold the wires in place while twisting. Such devices are time consuming to use as individual wires must be secured to the devices prior to twisting, and must then be released from the devices after twisting. Other such devices secure wires into slots, which do not snugly and securely engage the wires, which are prone to disengagement upon jiggling or impact of the device, or by double looping the wires through a pair of apertures formed into rotatable discs, which require the excess wire to have to either be manually disengaged (a time-consuming procedure that obviates most of the time saved by the twisting device) or cut away from the twisting device (again requiring time and effort and wasting wire).
What is needed is a device that securely engages the wires to be twisted, facilitates the efficient simultaneous twisting of multiple strands of electrical wire, and allows for the quick and easy disengagement of the wires therefrom once twisted. The claimed novel technology addresses these needs.